


these scars on my heart I own them (we are unbreakable)

by aletterinthenameofsanity



Series: this could be good (love is patient, love is kind) [21]
Category: Power Rangers, Power Rangers S.P.D.
Genre: Also everyone except Jack is bisexual, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst with a Happy Ending, Asexual Character, Bisexual Character, But no, Character Study, Cuddling & Snuggling, Developing Relationship, F/F, F/M, I have gotten far too attached to this OT5, I promise, Jack is only the latest, Kissing, M/M, Multi, Personal Growth, Polyamory, Team Bonding, Team as Family, Then, Touch-Starved, and he's biromantic asexual, because at least half of the Power Rangers teams have at least one, because i am a dick, do i have regrets?, endgame OT5, i probably should, i put Sky through some hell, once again having way too much fun with the Soulmate concept, starts off as Jack/Z, then Jack/Z/Syd/Bridge, there is a shit ton of cuddling and touching
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-26
Updated: 2018-11-26
Packaged: 2019-08-27 00:25:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16691809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aletterinthenameofsanity/pseuds/aletterinthenameofsanity
Summary: Jack and Z are fifteen years old, bitter and seeking to find acceptance, when Bridge and Syd write to say that they’re joining S.P.D. like their parents did.Years later when they join the S.P.D. team and find out that the B Squad Pink and Green are their soulmates it's a pretty strange- but great- moment.Things aren’t perfect. The four of them sharing Marks isn’t an end-all, be-all, everything’s sunshine and roses guarantee. After all, Syd’s a bit stuck-up, Jack has trust issues, Bridge can’t communicate very well, and Z has a tendency to put other lives above her own. All four of them have their major issues, and sometimes they find themselves fighting more than flirting.But the Marks mean the four of them are meant to be the parts that complete each other- but only after a bit of work and faith in each other. So they do try. And it mostly works.(But sometimes, when Jack is looking at his arm, at the familiar green and red and pink and orange ink on his skin, he sometimes wishes- and he hates admitting it- but he sometimes wishes that there was blue there as well.)





	these scars on my heart I own them (we are unbreakable)

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [stay here honey i don't wanna share](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16118540) by [mcmeekin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mcmeekin/pseuds/mcmeekin). 



> Title is from "We Are the Ants" by Shaun David Hutchinson.

_Teenage dreams in a teenage circus_

_Running around like a clown on purpose_

_Who gives a damn about the family you come from?_

_No givin' up when you’re young and you want some_

_We are not what you think we are_

_We are golden_

**_-MIKA_ , We Are Golden**

 

Jack meets his first soulmate when he was only ten years old. Z is feisty, stubborn, and hides a bitterness that he understands all too well. He's an orphan and she was disowned by her parents- they've both been rejected by family and society because of their powers. They know what it's like to be the outcasts, the unwanted and unloved.

Their other two Soulmates can somewhat empathize- both Bridge and Syd have mutant powers, though they come from very different backgrounds. Syd lives in the rich part of New Tech City with her scientist dad and her CEO father, who discourage her powers but never outright reject her for them. Bridge, on the other hand, lives in Ocean Bluff with his mom, his Aunt Fran, and his Uncle Dom, and his family isn't quite sure how to treat his aura-reading abilities (other than to make sure he wears gloves all the time), but they try to love him the best they can anyway.

Jack and Z know that they probably won't meet them until the normal age, when people start arranging Meetings and the like, but in the meantime they write and they grow and they have each other, and for now, that's enough.

-

They are fifteen years old when Bridge and Syd write to say that they’re joining S.P.D. like their parents did. At first both Jack and Z are on board- if this is what Bridge and Syd really want, then they should be able to do it, but then the full scope of implications start to hit. Bridge and Syd still write, but it’s pretty restricted to a half hour after they wake up and a half hour after they fall asleep. They say that it’s because of S.P.D. regulations that they can’t write all hours of the day.

This is pretty understandable...at least it is to Z. Jack doesn't take it as well but, you know, he's Jack. Jack has a bit of a problem with authority and rules set by said authority. No matter how much Bridge and Syd apologize or Z tries to get him on board, the S.P.D. rules chafe at him. Why the fuck shouldn’t Soulmates be allowed to communicate with each other?

Years later when Jack and Z join the S.P.D. team and find out that the B-Squad Pink and Green are their soulmates it's a pretty strange- but great- moment. One second Z has accepted a role as a Power Ranger and then Jack has fought alongside the team, and the next Bridge, Syd, and Sky are introducing themselves and Z and Jack’s eyes are nearly falling out of their heads.

“Bridge Carson?” Z asks, unable to believe her ears.

“And Sydney Drew?” Jack continues, exchanging a look with Z.

Syd raises a perfectly groomed eyebrow, and Z nearly laughs at how much the physical appearance of the girl in front of her fits the prim words and pink handwriting that has littered her arms since childhood. “Yeah, but what’s it to you?”

Z just rolls up the sleeves of her new yellow ( _brilliantly_ yellow- and how did all of her Soulmates, except for her, manage to pick a color when they were kids that matches their Ranger color now?) uniform and reveals her and Jack’s Marks, the familiar red and purple ink detailing some notes they’d left for each other that morning about how they were going to “hang out” in Parkington Market. Underneath is a hastily scribbled note in Bridge’s green ink- one that hadn’t been there this morning- about being careful about the thieves in the Market. She nearly laughs- thieves in the Market? Bridge had been trying to warn Jack and her about  _themselves_.

“Is that…?” Bridge asks, voice quiet and soft, and Syd nods.

“I think so.” Her gaze snaps up to Z and Jack. “You two- you’re Z Delgado and Jack Landors, right? You’re our Soulmates, aren’t you?”

Z nods and finds herself with two grinning Rangers. "We've been waiting for you for years," Bridge says, stepping forward with arms open before he pauses. "Um, can I give you a hug?"

"Sure," Z says, and Bridge steps forward and pulls her into a hug.

Sky just raises an eyebrow. “Congratulations,” he says, a strange note to his voice. “But you four better not let it become a distraction to the team.”

Indignation rises in Jack's chest. How dare Sky say that? They're part of the team now. They've sworn allegiance to S.P.D. They promise to be good Power Rangers. Enjoying the company of their Soulmates it shouldn't interfere with that.

Syd seems to agree based on the way she's glaring at Sky. Something warm rises in Jack's chest at her ferocity, the way she's facing off with her teammate for Z and Jack within just a few moments of meeting them.

Maybe S.P.D. won't be so bad, if he has his Soulmates with him.

-

Things aren’t perfect. The four of them sharing Marks isn’t an end-all, be-all, everything’s sunshine and roses guarantee. After all, Syd’s stuck-up, Z has trust issues, Bridge can’t communicate very well, and Jack has a tendency to be hardheaded and reckless. All four of them have their major issues, and sometimes they find themselves fighting more than flirting, straining at the edges to make their relationship work.

The Marks mean the four of them  _are_ meant to be the parts that complete each other- but the Bond does not guarantee instant happiness. It means that they will be each others’ perfect parts, but only after a bit of work and faith in each other. So they  _do_ try.

Syd shares her birthday with Jack. Z, Syd, and Jack start to understand and appreciate Bridge’s way of thinking. Z learns to let Syd and Bridge back her up and not to constantly worry about them. Jack begins to open up to people other than Z. Bridge learns how to shorten his sentences, how to try to and explain an idea before just pursuing it to wherever it might lead.

(And Sky- Sky stands there by their sides, eternally watching, eternally correcting, eternally being the odd one out. His growth is jagged compared to theirs, happening in rotten spurts and leaps of faith, growing with and away from and towards them.

Sky is their teammate, their fellow loser, their fellow lesser-than, but they can only see that some of time. The rest of the time, they are too caught up in their own relationship, their Soulmates, their squabbles and fuck-ups and make-ups, to realize what's going on with their teammate.

But sometimes, they do notice. And it changes everything and it changes nothing.)

-

As the Red Ranger, Jack gets a single room to himself. Syd and Z share a double, as do Bridge and Sky. This  setup makes it both more convenient and less convenient for the four Soulmates to share a bed. After all, it's pretty easy to move Syd and Z's small beds together to form a sort-of-queen-sized bed that allows three of them to sleep together at once, and Jack's room being his and his alone means that the Soulmates can have plenty of privacy for whatever they want to get up to.

However, Bridge's bed is pretty off-limits for sleeping together as it's in the same room as Sky, the only member of the team not in their relationship.

And to be honest, Bridge doesn't spend many nights in his own bed. Most nights can find him cuddled with the girls in their room or with Jack in his or basically any combination of the four of them between the two rooms. Sometimes it'll be the girls in one room and the boys in another, sometimes the street rats in one and the original S.P.D. Cadets in the other, and sometimes even Syd and Jack in one room and Bridge and Z in the other.  Some nights it'll be three of them in the girls' room, sometimes one, and one really bad night after a bad case all four of them wake up with cricks in their necks and backs after all four of them fall asleep on the floor in the girls' room.

Most nights, though, the order of who's in what bed will depend on who needs the comfort most on any given night. Often, it will be Bridge who needs to be cuddled or comforted. Because of his powers, he's pretty touch starved. The only people he can touch comfortably without his gloves or his uniform on are his Soulmates. When he touches them, the visions aren't so bad. Instead of taking over his brain, they hum below his skin, like a pleasant background noise. So nearly all nights can find him in someone else's bedroom, tucked into one of his Soulmate’s sides, dreaming about the future and the past and everything else at his powers have awakened him to.

He'll wake up, sometimes, without an idea of where or when he is, and the touch of his Soulmates will steady him. He'll find Z pressed to his side, Syd's head of curls laying on his chest and occasionally getting into his face, or Jack curled around him, and he'll know that he's in the S.P.D. base in 2030.

Bridge couldn't be happier than he is when he's cuddled together with his Soulmates, their presence anchoring him and chasing away the worst dreams.

(Sometimes, though, Bridge finds himself looking at Sky and wondering if there's something off about the fact that one of their teammates spends his nights alone. He's never given mention of a soulmate of his own, and Bridge doesn't know if it's because of S.P.D. rules or because Sky doesn't have a Soulmate or even that Sky has met them already and he just never speaks about them. All Bridge knows is that Sky spends every waking moment devoting himself to S.P.D. and that Bridge never sees him leave HQ except on missions. Bridge sometimes has to wonder, therefore, if there isn't something wrong.)

-

Sometimes, when Jack is looking at his arm, at the familiar green and red and pink and purple ink on his skin, he sometimes wishes- and he hates admitting it- but he sometimes wishes that there was blue there as well. He can’t explain the reasons why it feels oh so wrong to not have blue ink on his arm as well, why he feels like there's something not complete about the colors of the marks on his arm, but he can't help it. And it makes him feel like a piece of shit, thinking that way, because he fucking loves all of his Soulmates. Each one of them carries a piece of his heart, and he loves them to the ends of the Earth. His day would not be complete without Bridge’s rambling logic, Syd's flair, Z's selfless heroism.

But he  _also_  knows that he wouldn't be the same man without Sky's stubbornness and attention to detail tempering out Jack's more reckless tendencies. Sky is just as important as part of the team as the rest of them, and sometimes Jack wishes that that extended to the marks on his wrist.

There is a spot on the carpet next to their cuddle pile that feels empty, like it could just use one more person. And Jack can far too easily imagine the blue of Sky's uniform laying in that spot, instead of in the chair at the far end of the room or off who knows where doing the paperwork that makes the rest of the team groan.

-

Syd has been kissing Bridge for years, pretty much from the moment they got assigned to B-Squad together. His lips are pretty much secondhand to her by this point, a sense of comfort and familiarity that never fail to make her feel better. Bridge makes her feel normal, makes her feel right in her own skin.

The second of Syd's soul mates that she kisses is Z. Z doesn't kiss in a comfortable, familiar way like Bridge does. No, the way that Z kisses is passionate, complete with tongue and occasionally leaving behind swollen lips. Z's kisses are hungry, chasing feelings that they both crave. Kissing Z gives Syd the same kind of adrenaline rush that fighting criminals does- everything is right in the world.

Jack, on the other hand, kisses in a way so gentle and soft that Syd feels like a princess, fragile and delicate. The first time he kisses her, Syd asks him, indignant, if he thinks she's a doll, too fragile to touch. Jack swallows and asks her if he did something wrong. When she tells him that she isn’t sure, he tells her that he hadn't meant to hurt her feelings and comes out to her as asexual in a hushed voice. She wraps him in a hug and kisses him in the way that he kisses her, gentle and loving, a caress of the lips rather than a dance.

(Jack, however, is the biggest fucking cuddle whore in the world. He's always at the center of the cuddle pile, always has two of them pulled to his sides. None of them mind, though- they love him exactly the way that he is, no matter how much he sometimes makes them want to punch a wall.) 

Syd has catalogued pretty much every way her Soulmates like to kiss, the ways they show affection. She’s catalogued the way Bridge likes to play with her hair when they’re lying in bed, kissing comfortably like always. She’s detailed the way Z will grab Syd after a battle is over and treat her lips like a target. She’s memorized the way Jack brushes her cheek with the back of his knuckles before leaning in for a quick press of the lips. 

Syd’s not gonna deny, though, that she has sometimes wondered how her last teammate kisses. Sky’s not their Soulmate, not hers to wonder about, but she does anyway and doesn't really feel too bad about it. Syd wonders if Sky is a passionate kisser, a gentle kisser, a comfortable kisser. She wonders if he would brush his fingers through her hair, yank her in by her cheeks, or caress her jaw first.

To be honest, he'd probably do it in an incredibly orderly way, finding the perfect angle to practice on before making his move. He'd probably try to find a rule to kissing, a regulation or tradition he could follow. It would, after all, be an incredibly Sky thing to do. 

But then Syd wonders if Sky would treat affection like his S.P.D. job- something to be regulated and practiced until perfected by a set of established rules- or like his powers- something only to be used as a last resort, because life has taught him that it's something to be ashamed of.

Syd, Jack, Bridge, and Z have had each other to remember that being a mutant is not something that sets you apart, makes you less-than- Sky hasn't had that, at least, Syd doesn't think he has. She knows that he has never once mentioned a Soulmate in the years she’s known him, never once talked about anyone who could have counteracted the way the world has treated him because of his powers.

Syd just hopes that the year he's spent with them is enough to help him feel at least somewhat more...not 'normal,' normal's not a word she ever wants to feel, but at least better in his own skin- because Syd's seen what their team can do with their mutant abilities, and it's something far greater than anything the kids at her school or even A-squad made fun of her for.  

-

Taking down criminals who operate on just a physical level is generally an easy thing to do. But fighting criminals who operate on a mental level as well is twice as hard.

When Z and Sky go down on a normal patrol, an hour in an alert goes out to Syd, Jack, and Bridge, who arrive at the scene to find Z and Sky on the ground, DeMorphed and hunched over with the criminal gone. At first Syd can't tell what's going on, but then she sees a giant collar around each of their necks. 

“I hate you,” Z mutters, hands against her temples, “I hate you, I hate you, I  _hate_ you.”

“Hate who?” Jack asks, crouching down and placing a hand on Z’s shoulder, but she just flinches away, eyes hollow and haunted.

Syd swallows and looks away from Z. Instead, she finds Sky, who is sitting DeMorphed on the ground next to Z, clutches at his head. “I’m not alone,” he swears, but Syd’s pretty sure she can see  _tears_ in his eyes. In the years she’s known Sky, she’s never once seen him cry. “I’m not alone, shut up, I’m  _not alone_.”

Syd doesn’t think she can watch anymore. 

“What’s going on?” Syd asks, and she turns back to Z and Jack to find Bridge with his gloves off and his hands on Z’s free arm. His face is screwed up in concentration and frustration, and Syd  _gets_ it. Syd knows he hates invading people’s privacy but he’s gotta have some clue as to why their teammates are reacting so badly to the collars around their necks.

“I think…” Bridge says, “I think the collars are making them focus on their fears. I’m getting the same emotional wavelengths off of Z that I did when Cruger brought up splitting the team up. I’m getting similarly patterned wavelengths off of Sky, though obviously less powerful."

"Then we've gotta get those collars off!" Syd snaps. She doesn't want to see her teammates in pain.

"But we've gotta figure out a way to get them off that doesn't harm them," Bridge says, pulling his hand away from Z's skin and slipping his glove back on.

"Will the Fist of Iron work?" Syd asks, and Jack looks at the collars. They seem to be a singular piece of metal with no seams, just a small, glowing circle on the back. If she targets that, then they  _should_ come off easily.

"As long as you're careful with it."

She looks at Z's neck, thinking of how fragile human skin an organs are. "Trust me," she says, "I'll be careful." She then pulls out her ball of iron from her pocket and uses it to shift her hand's consistency. Once it's hard as iron, she reaches out carefully and touches the button on the back of Z's neck. Syd can kind of feel the heat that the button is trying to hit her hand with, and she knows that it would probably be burning her human skin if she wasn't using the Fist of Iron. She then grasps the button between two fingers and breaks it off. The collar shatters, and then Syd quickly moves to break Sky's off as well. Once that's done and Z and Sky are blinking at them, Syd asks, "You guys okay?" 

Sky blinks once before nodding. "Just fine," he says, his face schooling itself. "We need to go track down Eyesaac, but avoid getting hit with his orange blaster. That's where the collars come from."

Z nods, and though she seems more visibly shaken than Sky she's also not letting that deter her from her duty. "Jack, Sky's right. When we find the criminal, we need to take out his blaster before he can use it on us."

"Got it," Jack says, and activates his comm. "Kat, can you track down Eyesaac's biosignals?"

As they coordinate and head off to their next location, Syd focuses on Sky, Z, and distantly Bridge, who is still kind of stuck in Z's emotions. All three of her teammates are a bit shaken, though they're all handling it with varying levels of composure. Sky is being incredibly by-the-book, shutting down all emotions, Z's words are unsure and shake slightly as they come out, and Bridge has gone nearly completely non-verbal.

Tonight Syd's planning on sticking Z and Bridge in the middle of the cuddle pile and keeping them there until they both feel better.

- 

Sky spends the rest of the day almost obsessively touching his arms, and Z makes a point to find him before sleep tonight. It's not that hard- even after the normal bedtime, Sky is still in the control room, working on typing up his report for the day despite the fact that Cruger gave both Sky and Z permission to finish it tomorrow. Z has a feeling that the reason he's not going to sleep is similar to hers- that he's afraid that he'll dream of whatever he saw because of Eyesaac's collar.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Z asks, plopping down on the bench next to him.

"Not really," Sky says gruffly, but there's something in his eyes that makes her question that.

"If you want, I can start," Z says, and without waiting for a response she says, "When in Eyesaac's mind prison, I saw my parents in there. They were disowning me again, kicking me out of the house and onto the streets, just because of my powers. I couldn't get them to stop yelling at me."

Sky stares at her in a way that makes her skin crawl. It makes her feel like he’s reading her soul, like he’s examining an alien that he doesn't have enough information on and is trying to determine more about it.

“When I was a kid,” Sky says, “I asked my dad why he didn't have any marks on his arm. He said that he had met my mother when they were just teenagers and that he had marks then. But the experiment that gave him powers, the one that gave  _us_ powers, had had a secondary effect on him. It wiped away any presence of the Marks from his skin.”

Z’s heart clenches in her chest at the idea of losing Bridge, Jack, and Syd’s Marks from her skin. She imagines waking up with her skin blank and spending the rest of her life without the reassurance of their ink whenever she's feeling down, the instant way to communicate. It wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world as she  _knows_ who her Soulmates are, but she can’t imagine what it would be like for someone who didn’t know who their Soulmate was…

Oh. Oh  _no._

Z hates to ask, because she’s pretty sure of what Sky’s going to say, but the question begs an answer: “Have you ever tried writing on your arms?”

“When I was a little kid, yeah,” Sky says. “But then I got older, and no one ever responded, so I just stopped writing entirely. I thought I was Soulless for the longest time, until my dad told me his story, and he said it looked like I was probably never going to know if I have soulmate or not because the same powers that he had extended to me. Then when I got here to S.P.D., I asked Kat about it all. She said that I might have a soul Bond of some sort, but that even if I did there was some kind of impediment between the Soulbond and the pigment in my arm. Even if I do have a Soulbond, it can never activate the necessary pigment in my skin to manifest as a Mark.”

“So you don’t know if you're Soulless or not,” Z says, “If there’s a Soulmate out there who’s waiting for you or not.”

Sky shakes his head, face like stone as he rolls up his sleeve, showing her blank skin. “I’ve never known." Z stares at the expanse of blank skin, of the lack of ink on his arms. She hasn't seen a blank arm in years- she's either seen the color-filled arms of random humans on the streets, uniform-covered arms of other S.P.D. employees, or her own Soulmates' arms when they're off-shift. Blank skin is not something she's familiar with, and it's honestly a bit shocking to her eyes.

Her reverie is broken when Sky rolls his sleeve back down again, obscuring the blank slate that is his arm. “Promise me you won’t tell the rest of the team,” Sky says, “I know they’re your Soulmates, but I don't think I could bear them knowing."

Well, his logic seems a bit flawed there. “Then why did you tell me?” Z asks. “They’re  _your_ teammates, too. Don’t you think you should trust them with this?”

“You got hit by that...  _thing_ too,” Sky says, and don’t think that Z doesn’t notice that the man who normally catalogues every detail is refusing to call Eyesaac and his Fear Collars by their names. “You know what it means to be stuck in that room and having to face your worst fear."

“What did you see in that room?” Z asks, though she's kind of scared of the answer. If this is Sky's past, then she isn't sure she wants to hear the fears borne of a story like this one.

“That I was trapped in a bed, dying of old age with my arms bare on top of the sheets. The team was standing around me telling me that I was Soulless and that I would never have anyone who loved me.”

Holy shit, that’s  _bad._  It makes Z's fears seem less horrifying- at least she has her Soulmates by her side after she got kicked out. Sky doesn't have even that.

Well, he _does_ have something. “I don't know about your Soulmate, Sky,” Z says, “But the team  _does_ care about you. I understand your fear, but you don't need to worry about us not loving you for who you are.”

Sky gives her a strange, almost pained smile. "Oh, I know. But sometimes, on the worst days, that's not enough. Despite being resigned to a Soulless life, I can't help but see what you four have and want a relationship like that for myself."

Z wants to wrap Sky in a hug, but Sky's not the biggest fan of physical affection. And she doesn't want to make Sky even more uncomfortable than he already is.

So instead, she just nods. "I really hope you find someone who loves you like you deserve to be loved, Sky."

And Sky nods back, that pained smile becoming a little less painful. "Thanks, Z. Now, I've gotta finish the last bit of my report before bed. Goodnight."

Z offers him a smile. "Good night, Sky."

Then Z heads back to her room, where all three of her Soulmates are waiting with a pile of blankets on the floor and plenty of soothing kisses. She's thankful for them after the day she's had- their touches reassure her that she is wanted, and her parents don't matter anymore, not when she has Soulmates who love her.

Z just hopes that Sky will find that someday.

-

(Every one of Sky's teammates have burrowed their way into his heart, some easily, some taking the long way around.

Sky knows he fell in love with Z first. She was the easiest to fall in love with, with her drive to help others of course appealing to him, but Sky thinks that it has a lot to do with her outsider status that helped things along most. After all he spent two years with Bridge and Syd without falling in love with them, as he only saw them as his fellow cadets, but Z- she was something completely different than them. Z barreled her way into his heart, and the barriers he’d been able to establish with Bridge and Syd she’d brushed away like they were paper.

And that’s where the problem began.

Sky thinks it was knowing Z that led him to open himself up to Bridge and Syd, who he always kept a strict distance from. He'd been careful with his heart, intent on keeping his duties to S.P.D. and to his father's memory first priority, but with Z forcing her way into his heart came emotions that he always shoved aside.

He's pretty sure he fell in love with Bridge next, then Syd, and then finally Jack, who had  _not_ made it easy- Sky can attest to that- but who had just as firmly wedged himself into Sky's heart as the rest of the team had.

Sky had known that he was opening himself up to pain, falling in love with four people who were already Soulmates with each other, but he couldn't help it. These are his teammates, his fellow outcasts, the people he trusts most- is it any surprise that he would fall for them?

But he has resigned himself to the fact that he will never have his feelings reciprocated, and he's mostly okay with it. He cares about his teammates, and he's happy for them and their relationship (happy for them  _most_ of the time, if he's honest, because he's human, and sometimes, in the small moments, he's jealous and resentful because he wants what he can never have).

But yeah- he's happy. He's okay with being alone, with never having a Soulmate, with never knowing if he as a Soulbond or not.

Sky really is happy. At least, that's what he tells himself.)

-

They're in the middle of a routine pick up- a Yovatian (member of a reptile-based species that drains the energy of lifeforms to survive, almost like a scaly vampire) named Genra Jax who got caught halfway through his third full-drain of the month.

They're in the Megazord when the Yovatian gets a lucky hit in on Megazord, knocking out some of the sensors. Jack doesn't panic too much yet as the Megazord in general is still nearly perfectly functional, and despite the Yovatian's hit they manage to take him down within five more minutes.

They phase out of the Megazord and back down to the ground, where Jack scoops up the Yovatian's containment card. "We've got him," he says with a grin, turning back to his teammates. Bridge gives a small cheer, Syd nods, Z gives Bridge a clap on the back (it was his deduction skills that got them to Genra Jax), and Sky-

Jack looks around and sees the Blue Ranger on the ground.

“Sky?” Jack calls out to his teammate, and then he realizes the blatantly obvious- Sky is lying DeMorphed on the ground, his Ranger uniform gone. Jack's voice turns into a frantic shout when Sky doesn’t respond. “ _Sky_?”

The whole team runs toward the fallen Ranger, and when they arrive they find Sky unconscious with his uniform burnt in a black circle around his heart.

"We've gotta get him to Headquarters," Jack orders, voice a bit strangled, and Z and Bridge lift Sky's body up as Syd quickly brings around her vehicle and Jack calls in the attack to Headquarters. They've gotta get Sky back fast, and they need the infirmary ready to take care of him as soon as they get him there.

-

They get to Headquarters, deliver Sky to the infirmary, and, against every instinct they have, go to Cruger to deliver their report on the criminal they just caught. They relate the investigation, the battle, and the ending in one of the most efficient reports the Commander has ever seen from them.

Then the moment they're dismissed, they run to the infirmary, worry coursing through their veins. Sky hadn't been responding at the site and getting hit by a blast from a murderous Yovatian is  _never_ good. Yovatians tend to only take a little energy from a variety of sources, spreading the drain around, but murderers like Genra Jax shoot to drain all of an organism's life force, thus killing them. Sky could very well be on the verge of death right now.

They reach the doors to the infirmary and find the nurse standing there, tablet in hand. "Doctor Manx says that your teammate should wake up within the next day or two," he says, and they breathe a sigh of relief. "The hit from the Yovatian drained his body of energy and bruised a rib or two, but as it was a glancing blow made through the Megazord it didn't take full effect."

"Thank god," Jack mutters, and all around him he can hear a similar sentiment echoed by his Soulmates. Then, in a more audible volume, he says: "Can we see him?"

The nurse nods and the team files into the room, where they find Sky laying unconscious in a hospital gown which looks so wrong on the normally intimidating Sky, turning his body from its usual action figure state into a rag doll’s. 

Syd, Bridge, and Jack's gazes are drawn to the unnaturally pale state of Sky's face, to the deep purple shadows under his eyes and the lack of blood in his features. There is some faint bruising across his face, caused by the drain of energy from his body, and he looks rather sick.

Z, on the other hand, looks down at the rest of Sky's body, and therefore is the first to notice the mess of familiar colors on his arms, the handwriting that has become as familiar to her as her own.

“By the name of the great robot in the sky,” Z gasps, “I must be fucking hallucinating.”

"What are you hallucinating?" Bridge says before his gaze drifts downward. "...Oh."

“I don't think you're hallucinating at all,” Syd says, smile watery as she takes Z's hand in hers.

“Sky’s our Soulmate?” Bridge asks, smile so brilliant that it threatens to blind them, and Z nods.

Jack, on the other hand, can only stare at their marks on Sky’s skin. “How the fuck could he have hidden this from us?” he asks, an edge to his voice.

“You know Sky,” Syd starts to answer, “S.P.D. is his number one priority. He probably thought that we would distract him from his duty-”

“No,” Z interrupts, “He didn't have Soulmarks just a few weeks ago. I saw his arms, and they were bare.”

“You saw his arms?” Jack asks, shock clear.

“How?” Syd demands. “Bridge and I have worked and trained with him for three years before we ever met you guys and he  _never_ showed us his arms.”

“It was after we fought Eyesaac,” Z says, “And I promised him I wouldn't tell you guys.”

“But we're soulmates,” Jack says, “We don't keep anything from each other.”

“Sky asked and I promised him,” Z says, an edge entering her voice. It's her  _don't fuck with me_ tone, the one Jack learned at a very young age. It only shows up when she's protecting other people, but damn is it intimidating. “And I wasn't about to disrespect his privacy. He'll tell you what's going on when he wakes up, but since it doesn't have anything to do with his health, I ain't telling you what he said." Bridge, who keeps gloves on every second of his life save a few unguarded moments with his Soulmates, does not argue with Z. He understands the drive to respect others’ privacy despite having the ability not to. "But just know that he didn't have Marks a couple of weeks ago, and something must have brought them to the surface. He didn't hide them from us, okay?"

"Okay," Jack says as he sits down on the bench against the wall facing the end of Sky's hospital bed, "We'll be respectful and wait. Gotta admit, though, it makes so much sense.”

“Sky being our soulmate?” Syd asks as she sits down next to him.

“Yeah,” Bridge says as he leans up against the wall. “I mean, haven't you guys ever felt like there was a missing spot in our cuddle piles and our sleeping roulette?”

“Not only that, though," Z says, "He's the fifth part of our team, and he's just as important as any of us. We would have failed a number of times without him."

"Got that right," Jack says, looking at the Blue Ranger in the bed in front of them.

-

Sky’s eyes blink open and he finds his team surrounding his hospital bed, all of them collapsed into sleep.

Jack and Syd are curled up in the bench directly at the end of Sky’s hospital bed, his fingers resting tangled in her curls. Bridge is asleep on Sky’s right, snoring with his head tipped back to face the ceiling, while Z is slumped against Sky's hospital bed, her head cradled in her arms.

Sky manages a small smile for his team, for the way they all look so young and open when they're asleep, but then he looks down at his arms and- “ _Shit_.”

Z startles awake and her excited shout of “You’re awake!” wakes everyone else in the room up.

“There is no way in the seven hells that I’m not hallucinating,” Sky says, unable to tear his eyes away from the riot of colors on his arms.

“You’re not,” Bridge says, “Or at least, I don’t think you are, because if you are, then that means that the rest of us are, and it’s rather unlikely that all five of us are experiencing a mass hallucination-”

“To translate for Bridge,” Syd says as she and Jack climb up from the bench and hurry to the end of Sky’s bed. “We all see the Soulmarks on your arm.”

But- Sky doesn't have any. He's never had any, especially not ones in so many different colors. By his count he has to have at least four Soulmates, if not  _more_. How the fuck did that manage to happen? Last he remembers they were in the Megazord with a criminal's beam coming at them- how did he manage to finally get Marks somehow in the process?

He's not the only one who's wondering, that, though. 

“What happened to make your Soulmarks show up, though?” Z asks. “I thought you didn’t have any.”

“I can answer that,” Kat says as she enters the room, tablet in hand. “Whatever that criminal’s beam did to you must have activated the neurons needed to cause the Soulmark pigment to activate in your skin, alerting you to the fact that your Soulbond, fortunately enough, connects you to the rest of your team-"

Sky's brain short-circuits, his thoughts screeching to a halt like a criminal caught in a containment card. Did Kat just say-

“Wait,  _what_?” Sky asks. "They're my-" He can't even finish the statement, as insane as it is.

“Oh,” Kat says with a frown, “Did you guys not get to that yet?”

“Not yet,” Jack says through gritted teeth.

“Well, then,” Dr. Kat says, slowly backing out of the room, “I’m going to leave so that you five can have a conversation.” Then she practically books it out of the infirmary, clearly uncomfortable standing around as they discuss the most sacred of subjects.

(Sky doesn’t blame her- he’s incredibly fucking uncomfortable laying here, trying to process the Marks on his skin. He doesn’t really have an option, though- his body is exhausted and damaged from the fight, and he can barely move right now, much less escape the room. He’s stuck in this conversation and all its awkward, life-changing implications.)

Sky isn't which one of them to direct his question to. He's not sure he can look any of them in the eye, honestly. He has spent the past half year watching as their relationship developed. How can he possibly dream to be part of that?

“So,” Sky says, “Do my Marks really match yours?”

“Yeah,” Jack says, “They really do.” He rolls up his sleeves and reveals Marks that directly match the ones on Sky's arms, and the last shred of doubt falls from Sky’s mind.

But Sky doesn’t really know how to compute this new information, if he’s being honest with himself. He’s spent the last year or so falling love with his teammates and knowing that said affection would never be reciprocated in the way he wanted it to be. And he’d resigned himself to that, gotten used to the inevitability.

And now, the Marks on his arms tell Sky that his feelings, seemingly so wrong, may just be one of the only right things about him. They connect him to his teammates, to the people who he cares most about in the world.

But then again...this relationship's a maybe. After all, his team has had almost fifteen years without him to get to know each other. Even if he does belong with them, maybe he won't fit into their romantic relationship. He knows he's probably missing important information about them that they've picked up over their years with Marks connecting them.

He's not an idiot- he knows about the nights that Bridge leaves their room to be with the others. He hasn't missed the make-out sessions in seemingly abandoned hallways, the cuddle piles, the ways his teammates have tried to keep their relationship away from him. Maybe out of courtesy, but also maybe out of...

“I don't want you guys to feel like you have to include me in your relationship,” Sky starts, but Syd instantly interrupts him.

“Are you a complete fucking idiot?” She nearly shouts, and Sky recoils a bit before slumping down again as he realizes that his body is way too exhausted to be moving much at all. “You’re our soulmate and our teammate and we all fucking love you, you asshole. Of course we want you in this relationship.”

Sky looks at all of them, and none of their faces speak to any sort of argument with what Syd said. “Did you all discuss this?” He asks, and Jack nods.

“We all arrived here yesterday,” Jack says, “And saw your marks. We had a long discussion, trust us, and realized that we've all thought about you in, you know, that way.”

Sky can't quite believe it, but Jack Landors, heroic and suave Red Ranger, seems to be stumbling around his words. His usual skill with flirting, usually aimed at Syd, Bridge, and Z, seems to have abandoned him.

“In what way?” Sky asks, because he's a bit of a dick and also because he wants, no, he  _needs_ , Jack to spell it out for him. Sky doesn’t know whether to interpret Jack’s hesitation as him being flustered or him just not wanting Sky at all.

Z rolls her eyes. “In a romantic way, you doofus.”

Bridge leans forward and presses a kiss to Sky’s cheek and Sky blinks at the strange sensation. He's never had anyone kiss him before- his dad is dead, his mom was always distant, and he's certainly never been close enough with a friend or had a Soulmate that he's gotten to kiss.

Syd smiles. "Welcome to the relationship, Sky."

Sky could very much get used to this, and it seems like his teammates are on board with letting him.

"Alright," Sky says, because he knows that they'll have a lot to work through but also that they've _always_ had problems to work through. Their team isn't a perfect one, functioning like the well-oiled A-Squad- no, they're a bunch of machine parts that shouldn't fit together but have figured out a way to stumble their way into something great. Sky knows that this'll take effort, but that in the long run it'll be worth it. "Let's do this."

-

After another couple of days in the infirmary, Sky returns to his normal duty as a Power Ranger. Many things are the same. Bridge still rambles his way into solutions none of the rest of them could ever come up with, Syd still manages to bully them all into being more fashionable off duty, Z takes in numerous strays, Jack leads and butts heads with nearly everyone because he doesn't know the meaning of self-care, and Sky reins them in when they're being a bit too reckless.

Some things are different, though. That spot in the cuddle pile is filled. The bed swapping now includes a new, slightly larger body than any of the previous ones, and extends to the entire team’s rooms instead of just the original two. Sometimes, after a particularly hard mission, Z will grab Sky and kiss him in relief instead of one of the others.

They work as well as they ever did, except in some ways things are better without there being one teammate left out of the relationship. There aren’t awkward moments where Syd, Bridge, Z, and Jack talk about dates or leave HQ without Sky at the end of a shift. Instead, there's just one team, one relationship with everyone in it and no one left behind. There are kisses exchanged in back hallways between all the members of B-Squad, dates with two or three of them at a time, comforting glances and soothing words and reassuring pats on the backs.

Their team isn't perfect. It never will be. But to be honest, none of the squad really wants it to be perfect. They are the outcasts, the mutants, the unwanted and unloved, and they have found each other. Sure, they'll argue and fight and bicker and some days they want to tear each other's hair out more than they want to kiss, but at the end of the day they will always find their way back to each others’ beds, to the cuddle pile in the break room. They will bandage each other's wounds, hold each other up, rely on each other to save the world.

A-Squad will return and they'll fight the former team of Earth's Mightiest Defenders. And they'll lose, at first, because their weaponry isn't advanced enough. But then they'll get new S.W.A.T. weaponry to equal A-Squad’s weapons, and their teamwork and mutant powers will push them over the edge, because the thing that made the rest of the world reject them is the thing that will save their asses.

They'll get offered the title of A-Squad, and they will turn it down. They will keep B-Squad, because in the end, being B-Squad- being the losers, the mutants, the lesser-thans- is what makes them great. 

In the end, B-Squad becomes something a bit more than a normal team of Rangers. They become a family, a relationship of people who bare each others' Marks proudly when off-duty and communicate when on-duty. They save the world and fall further into love, building a family out of broken parts and late-night snack raids and faith in the future. 

-

The night they defeat Grumm finds the team battered and bruised but with proud smiles on their faces as they all crowd into the girls' bedroom, collapsing onto a pile of blankets on the floor. They curl up around and on top of each other, dressed in pjs with their arms bared so that plenty of skin-to-skin contact is happening. Bridge's gloves are off, Syd and Z's hair is down, and no one is really standing for any sort of S.P.D. procedure.

There are celebrations going on downstairs, but the five Rangers don't have any intention on leaving this room for awhile. Instead, they are staying where it is just the five of them talking and cuddling and exchanging lazy kisses, reminding their worn brains that all five of them are here and still alive.

This group of mutants, of losers, of Soulmates, just took down the Number One, Two, and Three threats to earth. The world can wait a few hours.

**Author's Note:**

> There will be a fucking sequel. There will be so many sequels to this fic your heads will spin, if I finish all the fics I've started for S.P.D. in this 'verse. I have fallen in love with these stupid lil' shits and their broken parts and their dynamic with each other and all the possibilities they hold.  
> So hold on if you enjoyed this, because this story is just the beginning.


End file.
